multithreaded workflow

[HanSch]

I remember that the option to use in a workflow all cores of a multicore processor was turned off in one of the beta-versions of PWP 6. In my 6.0.9 version, the "number of servers" is greyed out in the workflow-file-preferences widget. Is it still not possible to use more than 1 core? Or does PWP somehow not recognize both (in my case) cores? In bilateral sharpen too only 1 core is used. As a check: other applications that are multi-threaded do use both cores.
I still use good old W-XP, 32 bits.

[jsachs]

You should be getting the benefit of multiple cores in bilateral sharpen.

[HanSch]

That's what I thought. So I uninstalled PWP and re-installed it, but with the same result. Workflows and bilateral sharpen use only a single core.

[ksinkel]

PWP determines how to multitask based on the number of cores it detects. What you are reporting indicates that PWP either detected only one core or was unable to detect the number of cores. Can you check under Control Panel/System and confirm that you indeed have more than one core.

Thank you,

Kiril

[HanSch]

My system has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ dual core processor.
In the task manager I can see that PWP doesn't come beyond the 50% load in workflows or bilateral sharpen, while e.g. SNS-HDR uses the full 100%.
I think that I lost it somewhere in the different releases of PWP 6.

[ksinkel]

You can not tell how many cores are being used from the progress bar in PWP, nor I suspect in other applications.

You can determine the number of cores PWP has detected from the Workflow window's Preferences dialog. (Access it from File/Set Preferences in the workflow pane f the Workflow window.) The maximum number shown in the Number of Servers dropdown is the number PWP has detected and the number of threads it will launch for Bilateral Sharpen, for example.

Since there may be advantages to actually using more threads than cores, in the next update we will add a preference setting for the number of threads to launch. Then the thread count will be settable independently of the number of cores detected.

Kiril

[tomc001]

Workflows fail on some of the images unless I have Do Not Multitask selected. Remembering the beta problem in that area I assumed you hadn't got around to fixing it yet. What is the status of this now?

I'm using 64 bit 6.0.9 with Core i7 920 running Windows 7 64 bit.

Tom

[HanSch]

In the workflow window's preference box the number of servers is 1, and the box is greyed out.
This is consistent with the fact, that the Windows Task Manager doesn't go beyond 50% load if I start a workflow (or bilateral sharpen a large image). If I watch the CPU use in the Performance window of the Windows Task Manager one core is used to the maximum while the other one is taking a nap. Several other applications go to 100%, so they appear to exhaust the performance of both cores.

[ksinkel]

HanSch: The coming addition to Preferences will allow you to set the number of threads independently of the number of cores detected. That should solve the problem of not using all cores.

Tomc001: could you send me a sample workflow at support@dl-c.com.

Kiril

[HanSch]

Thanks Kiril, great!